FighterControl

Just an interesting bit about scanning from Sunday.
I was listening to the Reds air to air from my home as they routed back to Wadd.
During an inflight debrief, one pilot said
"i see our friend with the scanner was there again"
To which another replied, yes it was annoying having red 10 commentary playing in my ear during the display"
So from this i am guessing here that someone is re-broadcasting on their air to air frequency.
i know this will get shot down by the experts but my concern is somebody doing this on purpose, by accident etc, and it needs to be called out as a no no.
GB

Probably in the the wrong place this one. Sounds a bit odd to me. Scanners don't transmit so it's not that. There are an increasing number of handheld transceivers that receive airband that people are turning to as an option, but it won't be that either. If I'm receiving the comms via the Reds freq and I hit transmit then I'm no longer receiving so it would stop. You said that they said the commentary rather than the air/air chatter, which is often played over the public address system by themselves. In that case is someone holding a radio transmitter near to the speakers and holding the transmit button? That's possible but if it interfered with their air/air comms I would have thought that they would have to abort the display as it's instrumental to their safety and timing. At Exeter the weekend prior, when the Reds were in, somebody did have a transceiver and were pressing the transmit button on the tower frequency allegedly, someone from airport security did come down to the crowd and ask them to stop. I do take this with a pinch of salt as if they knew who it was they should have carted them off. What I do know 100% is that there was a carrier on the tower freq at the time and they had to make a temporary switch. The Reds do have at least 3 back up frequencies which most people generally don't bother with so I'd be surprised if it was a big problem that they didn't just switch to one of those.

I also noticed this at Cosford when listening to the reds on my scanner (certainly not a transmitter), I assumed it was just interference from the PA system or from Red 10's own radio. If it is being done maliciously I'm not sure what the solution is, banning scanners from shows might help but it could easily be done from someone the other side of the fence or discreetly.

As already stated above, scanners are receivers not transceivers i.e. they do not transmit.

MattBennett wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 10, 2025 11:13 am

I banning scanners from shows might help

How?

There's some cheap Chinese radios available from the likes of Ali Express for around £15 that can scan and transmit.
Quanshang uv-k5 being one. Reputable sellers are deactivating the transmit function, others are not.

I'll stick with my Yupiteru.

Finty wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 10, 2025 12:51 pm

MattBennett wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 10, 2025 11:13 am

I banning scanners from shows might help

How?

Thinking about it, it probably wouldn't help. As TS010 said it might just be someone using a cheap radio causing problems without knowing but they could be located anywhere. There is direction finding equipment but I have no clue if that would be suitable for something like this. A simple solution might be for the reds to use a different or previously unused frequency that people won't be tuned to.

Lets just hope its an isolated issue and doesn't start becoming more serious.

Wonder if the same contractor was used at both locations to provide commentary and the problem is with their setup?
Taking it to another level, could the problem be with Reds equipment? Red 10 is the only one who operates on both frequencies ! However I presume the “Blues” also have an a/a radio to monitor the display, could one of these have a sticky button that is transmitting the display commentary that it’s picking up as background noise ?

TS010 wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 10, 2025 1:04 pm

There's some cheap Chinese radios available from the likes of Ali Express for around £15 that can scan and transmit.
Quanshang uv-k5 being one. Reputable sellers are deactivating the transmit function, others are not.

I'll stick with my Yupiteru.

AFAIK none of the transmitters with airband RX, have UHF Airband, which is the what Reds a/a is on. I have a radtel [licensed freqs only] which also has the airband rx activated. When 'ptt' is pressed on an airband freq it just beeps and nothing is transmitted.

Some won't transmit on UHF Airband out of the box, but once you've messed with the software you can get them to do it very easily, and for a beginner it would be a very easy thing to accidentally do (although, as pointed out above, it doesn't sound like that's what happened here).

EGDR wrote: ↑

Wed Jun 11, 2025 6:32 pm

Some won't transmit on UHF Airband out of the box, but once you've messed with the software you can get them to do it very easily, and for a beginner it would be a very easy thing to accidentally do (although, as pointed out above, it doesn't sound like that's what happened here).

Just done a quick search, and the one I've got can be 'upgraded'.